Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day Review

Whenever the question of value for money comes into the equation when talking about a videogame, you risk being branded a philistine.

In the case of Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day, we’re going to take that risk, because this game displays a staggering level of audacity in terms of what it’s asking for from the player and what it’s giving them in return.

We’ll avoid getting into a long-winded debate about whether price should ever be mentioned in a critical discussion about a game, save to say that we’d rather judge a game on its own merits, the issue of price left to one side, whenever possible.

In the case of a game like Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day, however, we can’t in all good conscience let you go in blind.

At least in the case of MGS 5: Ground Zeroes – a game whose length many were unhappy with – there’s something interesting enough at the game’s core to support the argument that the game’s price is irrelevant.

When it comes to Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day, however, making that argument would see you defend a game whose greatest merit is that it is functional.

In other words, you’ll find yourself defending a game that doesn’t really deserve it.

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day Review – All Sizzle & No Steak

Being developed by Suda 51, Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is characteristically bizarre, with baffling cutscenes (that, unfortunately, are often uncomfortably voyeuristic), evil luchadors, giant Pomeranians and three-eyed children.

The fact that it’s aesthetically striking and superficially distinctive should not, however, distract you from the fact that the game at the core of Short Peace lacks that kind of flair.

As Ranko, the player moves from left to right, taking out abstract enemies that shatter like Euclidean sick as they move towards the goal at the end of the level.

In doing so, the player must move fast enough to escape the clutches of the tentacles that pursue them from the left side of the screen.

That’s pretty much it.

There are multiple routes that you can take within the game’s levels (though taking a different route seems to have little discernable impact), and you can keep coming back to try and best your time and high score.

The problem is that the game is just not enjoyable enough to give you the incentive to do that.

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day Review – Luchadors & Anime

What Short Peace amounts to then, is a derivative but serviceable 2D sidescroller that’ll take you an hour or two to finish.

It’s not unpleasant to play, but you’ll have no qualms about tossing it aside as soon as you’re done.

In fairness to Short Peace, there are a couple of gameplay vignettes that serve to offer a bit of variety in the form of a boss fight that switches the plane to force you to scale the game’s environment vertically, rather than horizontally, and a retro-inspired battle against the aforementioned luchador.

These amount to little more than distractions, though, curiosities that fail to salvage a game that is, despite the window dressing, a little dull.

It’s important to note that Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is the fifth part of the Short Peace series, with the preceding four being four short anime films that are also included with the game.

If you’re interested in the anime, perhaps Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day will be redeemed simply by virtue of giving you access to those features: Possessions, Gambo, A Farewell to Weapons and Combustible.

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day Review

In fact, it’s likely that it is those who want access to the Short Peace films at which Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is aimed – those who are as much interested in Japanese culture as they are in the prospect of playing the game itself.

We’re not here to evaluate the quality of those films, but we will say that as a package, Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day still seems like it’s showing disregard to those at which it’s aimed in asking for £35-£40.

Even if you put price to one side, Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigimie’s Longest Day still doesn’t fair particularly well.

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is a perfunctory and uninspired, if functional, 2D platformer that, at best, provides little more than a passing distraction.

Format

PS3

Developer

Crispy's Inc, Grasshopper Manufacture

Publisher

Bandai Namco

Genre

Side-scrolling platformer

Number of Players

1

Release Date

01/01/1970

Price

£37.99

Score

3.0

Final Verdict

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is a serviceable but uninspired sidescroller. It appears bizarre and distinctive, but in reality, is a dull game that offers appalling value for money.